Shopping For A Hurricane

Whenever a weather event threatens, people hit the stores looking for supplies. We see it all winter up here in New England - the Chicken Littles on TV warn of three inches of snow on the way and the supermarkets practically get ransacked with people buying every bit of bottled water and especially the Big Three Storm Commodities: bread, milk, and eggs.

We've had plenty of warning with Hurricane Irene clawing her way up the coast (it should be here as a tropical storm sometime on Sunday) and by now most emergency goods were sold out at hardware stores (batteries, lamp oil, duct tape for taping windows and plywood for more secure covering.) I don't think there's an unsold generator in the state of Connecticut right now.  But there was considerably less urgency at the local supermarkets today.  Most of my inquiries to area friends were met with answers like "Seems to be no busier than the usual Saturday," or "Running low on bottled water, but there's plenty of most other stuff."

So late this afternoon I went off to the local Big Y to see what would be left on the shelf.  I was almost surprised to find the shelves so well-stocked, but kind of amused at what was actually sold out.

There was no skim milk at all, but plenty of 2% and whole milk.  Lots of bread was on the shelves, and plenty of eggs, cheese, coffee creamer, and so on.  Not too surprising that dairy stuff wasn't a quick seller, actually - in the wake of Hurricane Gloria 25 years ago, power was out for four days and unrefrigerated dairy products spoil quickly.  So I checked out other aisles.

Soups are popular emergency rations.  Nearly all the Campbell's chicken varieties were gone except for a few cans of Noodle-Os.  There were tons of cream soups, though, and a full bin of Cream of Asparagus.  Lynnafred thought that was hilarious: "Look at this - no one wants Cream of Stinky Pee Soup, and I don't blame them a bit."

Large bottles of bottled water were sold out, but there were plenty of smaller bottles by the case ready to go.  

Oddest sell out in the whole place, though?  Marshmallow Fluff.